The purpose of this study is to identify factors that significantly impact the retention of Chicano students in higher educational institutions. To achieve this goal we are viewing the Chicano student in the total environmental context of institutional environmental characteristics, background data, and current social/educational factors. Data will be collected from students who are persisting in higher education and those students who, for whatever reasons, have dropped out. One hundred students (persisters) from each of four universities and forty drop-outs from each institution have been interviewed. Instrumentation used includes: a structured one-to-one interview, an environmental stress scale, and a paper/pencil questionnaire form.